Recently, the “Oscars of Science” awarded a special prize for the stunning first image of a black hole (“2 Mauna Kea telescopes share in prize,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 8).

This supermassive monster is 6 billion times the mass of our sun. Its gravitational field is so powerful that not even light can escape it. Yet detection was achieved by an international consortium that included the vital contribution of two telescopes on Mauna Kea: the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and the Submillimeter Array.

The link between modern technology and Native Hawaiian mythology is notable in the Hawaiian name — Powehi — bestowed upon it by Larry Kimura, a University of Hawaii at Hilo Hawaiian language professor. Powehi means “the embellished dark source of unending creation.”

It confirms that the two spheres of modern technology and Native Hawaiian culture are not mutually exclusive. There is room for both atop Mauna Kea. The TMT will take up just 5.5 acres of the available 10,763. Given this recent award, one can only imagine what great discoveries about our universe will come from this relatively tiny acreage.

H. Gerald Staub

Hawaii Kai

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